When
the above declaration was approved by the national convention of the Young
Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in 1970, it signaled a dramatic climax
to the organization's century-long struggle to fulfill its social mission.
At that juncture in its history, the YWCA was giving voice to its experience
as the oldest and largest women's multiracial association in the world,
and yet, in all of its work with, and for, women, the most overwhelming
obstacle to social progress continued to be relations between the races.
At the height of the civil rights and Black Power movements, YWCA members
asserted that by focusing on racism, women of all races could identify their
positions as oppressors as well as oppressed persons and could then work
more effectively to combat the ills of society.

The
multiracial membership of the YWCA resulted from both incidental and deliberate
actions by its membership. As early as 1870, only four years after the formation
of the Boston YWCA, and only nineteen years since the fist association was
begun in England, Black churchwomen in Philadelphia represented a Colored
Women's Christian Association at the second annual national convention of
Women's Christian Associations. During the remainder of the nineteenth century,
as Black women migrated in large numbers to industrial centers, similar
associations were begun in an effort to meet the increasing need for social
services and lodging. These early city associations were founded and operated
by Black women because their race excluded them from organizations established
to serve white women. However, in spite of their adoption of the name Young
Women's Christian Association, and despite their unceasing efforts to affiliate
with their white counterparts, these Black associations were not accepted
as part of the growing national movement of women's associations that combined
to form the International Board of Women's and Young Women's Christian Associations.

By
contrast, as part of a separate movement of students organizing YWCAs, Black
students at predominantly white colleges as well as on Black college campuses
were welcomed as members. This group's national umbrella organization was
known as the American Committee of Young Women's Christian Associations.
There were cordial relations between the two national bodies, but they worked
as independent organizations. The American Committee associations were most
often led by white students and teachers. With much emphasis on the task
of evangelizing the world, this group believed that part of their Christian
mission included ministering to Black and Native American students as well
as working as foreign missionaries. Affiliates of the American Committee
were closely aligned with the world and the international committees of
the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), which pioneered work among
minority students. Stressing prayer and Bible study in preparation for a
life of service, the women's student associations grew rapidly among young
Black women at the turn of the century.

When
the national organizations merged in 1906 to form one national board, fourteen
Black student associations formally affiliated with the American Committee
and four Black city associations were recommended for affiliation.[A] Although
these associations by no means represented all of the work being done by
Black women under the name Young Women's Christian Association, Addie H.
Hunton, a Black social worker who was hired by the new national board to
assess the work of these groups, believed they held the most promise.

However,
true to the segregationist policies of the era, white women were reluctant
to accept Black affiliates, especially in city associations. Their concern
centered on two main issues. First, they did not want to assume fiscal responsibility
for the struggling Black associations. The second issue was equally compelling.
White Southern women especially worried that "any parallel working among
colored people would mean attendance by both at conferences," and they were
not willing to suffer the embarrassment of being seated at regional and
national meetings alongside Black women from their own cities.

The
early solution was to affiliate already established Black associations directly
with the national board in a separate category, independent of the white
associations. This arrangement was not satisfactory in most cases, however,
for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that, without
financial support from the larger white associations, the small Black operations
could not afford professional leadership or provide quality services. It
soon became apparent that the more expedient arrangement, especially in
fast-growing northern cities, was to have a central association, which usually
was all white, and so-called colored branches. Moreover, "no work was to
be undertaken . . . to promote Association work among colored people in
the cities in the South."

Under
this arrangement, branch committees of management were mostly free to design
their own programs, and a few were responsible for raising operating funds.
Prior to World War I, the central association designated members of its
board of directors to serve on a subcommittee for colored work. This committee,
which reported back to the board, acted as liaison to maintain control over
personnel and major capital decisions. Black women tolerated this structure
as a trade off for fiscal support, leadership training, and credibility
as part of the powerful national organization. Moreover, affiliation provided
access to a national network of white Christian leaders who sometimes could
influence the quality of local race relations. During this same period,
according to association records, Black student association work grew to
include 150 institutions. At white colleges where there were representatives
groups of Black students, some organized separate associations.

The
benefit of affiliation was dramatically illustrated when, during World War
I, the national board received $4 million from the government to supervise
war-work activities for women; of this amount, $400,000 was set aside for
work among Black women. During the war period, Eva Bowles, secretary for
colored work for the national board, supervised the expansion of service
to Black women--from sixteen affiliates to association work in forty-nine
communities covering twenty-one states and the District of Columbia. In
the South Atlantic region alone, at least 4,000 Black women and girls were
enrolled. In a two-year period, Bowles also expanded the opportunity for
hundreds of competent Black women to become employees and volunteer leaders
in the association.[B] At the end of the war, the association allocated $200,000
of its remaining funds to build the Phyllis Wheatley branch in Washington,
D.C.

Association
work expanded to include two principal groups of women. The first emphasis
was on providing recreation and housing services for young women migrating
to urban centers in search of employment. Because many of these cities were
in the South, association work for this group had been almost nonexistent.
YWCA workers mobilized Black leaders and with their help organized activities,
some skills development, and employment and residence registries. This work,
which began as a supplement to government-sponsored "hostess houses" for
the families of soldiers near army camps, formed the nucleus of postwar
center development. The second thrust was incorporating the large number
of young women who had been organized into Girl Reserve Clubs, originally
formed as so-called Patriotic Leagues to support the war. These clubs contained
girls between the ages of ten and eighteen in schools all over the nation.[C]

From
their beginning activities as founders, members, and participants in the
YWCA, Black women petitioned in various ways to be recognized and represented
in the organization's decision-making bodies. As early as 1915, Black and
white women met to try and resolve racial relations between central and
colored branches in southern cities where associations existed prior to
the 1907 agreement and to demand Black representation on regional field
committees. After World War I, having greatly increased their numbers as
members in the association, Black women began to demand more control of
the work of their own branches and to insist that their committee chairs
become members of the local central committees; moreover, they pressed for
representation on the national board. In 1924, Elizabeth Ross Haynes, the
national board's first full-time Black staff member, was elected as the
first Black member of the board. Thereafter, Black women also were represented
on regional field committees. Further, in response to protests by Black
members, the national board resolved to hold national conventions only in
cities that would assure accommodations to all members in attendance. Although
Black women were critical of the slow rate of progress, the so-called biracial
policies of the organization were considered quite advanced for the time.

In
1931, the national board phased out its colored work subcommittee and assigned
headquarters-based Black workers to mainstream departments. Initially this
plan was greeted by the Black staff as a step toward interracial work. However,
not long after it was put into place, Bowles resigned in protest, charging
that in reality, "the plan would diminish the participation of Negroes in
decision making." In response to her allegations, as well as to the mounting
complaints of Black association leaders, the national board formed a committee
on interracial policies that functioned for ten years. During this period,
the board also commissioned a national study of race relations in the association.[D]

After
a careful review of local associations, the national organization adopted
an interracial charter in 1946, which served as an internal sanction against
all forms of segregation in instances where there were no legal restrictions.
This action was preceded in 1942 by a decision by Black association leaders
to disband their Negro Leadership Conference. (The conference dated back
to the immediate post-war period when Black residents of the South Atlantic
region had no opportunity to function as part of normal association life;
from their meetings had grown a national gathering of Black YWCA representatives.)
The unanimous 1946 vote was recorded as the recognition "that in the YWCA,
the high value is its interrelatedness--its process of togetherness in working
on the common concerns of humanity" (Bell and Wilkins 1944). [See annotation
D for full citation.]

Adoption
of the interracial charter was a watershed in the life of the organization.
It meant that associations were expected to actively integrate Black women
into programs, facilities, and governing bodies. Eventually it meant dismantling
all segregated branches. In spite of strong resistance in many southern
cities, including a few court battles against the national board, and more
subtle resistance in other parts of the country, the YWCA desegregation
effort was fairly successful. To help local associations prepare for the
change, the board assigned Dorothy Height to the position of interracial
education secretary. In 1963, her position was changed to director of the
Office of Racial Justice, reflecting a more aggressive approach. The new
office was in charge of planning strategies to overcome internal segregation
and to assist in the desegregation of all facilities.

The
1970 convention that voted in favor of the association's "one imperative"
to eliminate racism was preceded by a series of interracial awareness gatherings
for local members and a national board-sponsored retreat for 500 Black leaders
in the organization. During a period when Black members had become disillusioned
with the slow rate or progress and the high emotional cost of integration,
the issue had become whether to remain part of the association or separate
in order to be in complete charge of services to Black women. After much
agonizing, and with the thoughtful leadership of Helen Jackson Wilkins Claytor,
the first Black president of the national board, the group concluded that
the organization represented a historic investment for Black women as well
as white women, and that they would present their "imperative" to the total
convention.

Although
the Young Women's Christian Association remains an organization with a predominantly
white membership, its leadership has mirrored the organization's commitment
to integration. Between 1973 and 1990 the organization chose two Black women
as national executive director, and two Black women have served as president
of the national board. Also, the programs and projects of local associations
are scrutinized to assure the inclusion of women of all races represented
in the population.

Abstract

DocumentList

Introduction

A. The C.Y.W.C.A.
in Baltimore, discussed in this project, was among these four Black city associations.Back To Text

B. For a partial
listing of cities with such Colored Y work, see Document
25A, "Information from War Work Centers."Back To Text

C. The best summary
of these wartime activities is presented in Jane Olcott, The Work of Colored
Women, (New York: Colored Work Committee War Work Council, 1919).Back To Text